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| First Person |
Lessons Learned
Larry Balaban
03/01/2008
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In my 20s, I moved to New York City and landed modeling and
acting gigs. I continued working as a model for several years both in the United
States and in Europe, appearing in commercials for Coca-Cola and Close-Up
toothpaste. My interest in acting lessened as I became fascinated by business,
but to this day, I still rely on skills that I began to develop on those shoots
so many years ago.
Cutting Loss
Risk is a part of starting any business. I’ve certainly faced
my own dark days, and I have seen some of the businesses I’ve tried to launch
ultimately founder. In the late 1980s, companies began to buy phone time
wholesale and resell it. My brother, father and I created BBB Communication, a
distributor that sold phone time and prepaid phone calls.
Our business went belly-up and we lost $3 million, but I don’t regret the experience. From this loss, I developed a tougher skin to endure the hard times. |
Successful at this venture, my brother and I dreamed up an even
more exciting use for phone cards. We thought, wouldn’t it be great to speak to
your favorite soap star? Or receive a wake-up call from Bart Simpson? Together
we created the Telephone Entertainment Card. Partnering with Procter &
Gamble Productions, we secured the licensing rights to soap operas such as
As the World Turns, The Guiding
Light and Another World. We also worked with
Paramount to develop a Star Trek theme, with Klingon language lessons
and phone calls with Captain Kirk. We succeeded in convincing William Shatner
that we had a breakthrough idea, and he even joined us for our meetings at
Paramount. Who wouldn’t be up for talking with their favorite celebrities?
Ultimately, the question turned out to be "Who would?" Sadly,
fans were not willing to spend 50 cents a minute for the service. The Internet
was also beginning to gain momentum, and it was a better platform for this type
of content. Our business went belly-up and we lost $3 million, but I don’t
regret the experience. From this loss, I developed a tougher skin to endure hard
times. In addition to that, I got a crash course in licensing, negotiating and
audio production, which in turn would contribute to the success of Baby Genius.
Licensing has become a central element in expanding Baby
Genius. We have partnerships with Gerber, Taco Bell and Parents magazine.
These partnerships deliver 5.8 million Web hits a year. Our programming is
watched 1.3 million times a month on Comcast. And we recently expanded into a
toy line. In the first four weeks the toys were available, the sales numbers
doubled each week. My partners and I are finally seeing our vision come to
fruition. Today, our DVDs and CDs are sold in more than 8,000 retail stores in
the United States. Baby Genius also has gone international, and our DVDs can be
seen everywhere from Australia to Malaysia. Beyond that, though, we are making
kids and their parents happy. I look forward to working with the children on
set, going to the studio and brainstorming new ideas with my business partners.
I love to hear from viewers and customers, and see moms and their kids smile. I
think I have the greatest job in the world.
Still, I don’t believe there is anything as wonderful as being
a dad, and fatherhood still contributes to my work at Baby Genius. Before
Frankie was born, there were no characters—the DVDs were simply music paired
with images. Frankie was the inspiration for her namesake character, Frankie the
elephant, as well as many of the other characters, like Vinko the dancing bear.
I hope Frankie will help run the company someday. In many ways, she’s already
helped a great deal: She serves as a one-person focus group for many of the
songs, toys and DVDs.
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